It’s been 8 weeks since I posted last. A lot, including one of the biggest milestones in my life happened in the interim.

My father, my wonderful and beautiful father passed away on August 17, 2012 at around 9pm. He was 71 years old.

My father was my biggest fan. He was always the most eager person to comment on all my cooking, the one who made me feel that I can never do anything wrong in the kitchen. Retorting with his usual comment.

“My darling, that looks so good. Nyem nyem nyem nyem. You will make me this, right?”

“Honey, that looks so beautiful? What is in it?”

“Please make this for me when you’re home next time. I want to try it, it looks so good!”

“Oh, Croissant, I love croissant. Will you please make me some?”

And then he always gave me his biggest smile upon trying the food. He will say

“Enaaaaaaaaaaakkkk!”

“Top markotop!”

There are several recipes that I promised to make him, but didn’t make it in time while he was alive. I shall go through a list of his request in the coming few posts and share with you the food that my father loved or I know he’ll love.

15 cherry tomatoes, whole (or you can replace with 2 medium sized tomatoes cut into the size of eggplant blocks)

1 paprika, yellow for color variation, but can be any color , really… (deseeded, then cut into similar size of the eggplant blocks)

1/4 cup of dry white wine (or can be replaced with plain water)

4 sprigs of fresh thyme/ oregano

Directions

In your tagine base put the olive oil and all of the sauce ingredients. Heat on the stove top on medium flame until the garlic became fragrant and change color, uncovered.

Add all the chopped vegetables into the tagine base. Add the herb sprigs, and then sprinkle with wine

Put the tagine lid on, with fire on your smallest setting, cook for 18-20 minutes. At 10 minutes open the tagine lid once, stir the vegetable to make sure the heat is evenly spread out, and then put the tagine lid back on.

Ready to be served with a side of grilled protein, but still works as a hot salad without any addition!